The announcement of maternity entitlements is belated and vague but its implementation needs to be ensured.

The National Food Security Act, 2013 legislated maternity entitlements as a universal right. The law required a new scheme be put in place to operationalise this right. “We need action not Acts,” Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, had said. He also blamed Manmohan Singh, then prime minister, who led the United Progressive Alliance government, for bringing in a weak food security law.

Three years later, there was neither action nor any Act.

Though the 2013 Act provided too little – Rs 6000 per child – the recognition of maternity entitlements as a legal right was important. Women in formal employment have had a right to paid leave for 4-6 months, but only a small fraction of women benefit from it as 90% of the workforce is employed in the informal sector. Maternity entitlements under the 2013 Act can be viewed as the informal sector equivalent – at a much lower scale – of the rights that women in formal employment have had. Implementing universal maternity entitlements at Rs 6000 will cost approximately Rs 16,000 crore, which is 0.2% of India’s Gross Domestic Product.

Some argue that this will slow down the decline of fertility levels. Intriguingly (yet thankfully) such an argument was never made when maternity entitlements were legislated for women in the formal sector. There is careful documentation of the importance of maternity entitlements for maternal and child nutrition, both of which can lower child mortality, and thereby lower fertility as well.

Neo-natal mortality rates – infants who die in the first month – are very high in India, at 29 per thousand in 2013, compared with 7.7 in China, as shown in research by Diane Coffey, a demographer who studies social influences on health in India. Low birth-weight is a major cause of high neo-natal mortality rates. Indian women are underweight to start with, and maternity entitlements, in the form of cash transfers, can help ensure that they are better fed, and hopefully gain adequate weight during pregnancy.

Of course, many other issues need to be addressed, including proper healthcare facilities, nutritious supplements (for example, in the form of eggs through anganwadis), adequate rest for pregnant women, and so on. Studying the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana, scholars found that women did a disproportionate load of unpaid work. When benefits were not paid (or, were not timely), women reported no change in the burden of work during pregnancy. The scheme, implemented as a pilot in 53 districts, provided Rs 4000 per child since 2010 – it was raised to Rs 6000 in 2013. However, coverage remained very poor – only 28% (until 2013), rising to about 50% in early 2013-14 of targeted women received the cash transfer. Delays in payments and exclusion of the most vulnerable women were among the other findings.

Lessons from states

Meanwhile, two state governments – Tamil Nadu and Odisha – have implemented schemes for universal maternity entitlements. In Tamil Nadu, the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit Scheme, initiated in 1987, now provides Rs 12,000 per child (likely to be raised to Rs 18,000 per child). Odisha’s Mamata scheme provides Rs 5,000 per child since 2011. Both schemes involve minor conditionalities, such as registration of pregnancy at the anganwadi, ante-natal checkups, etc.

The Tamil Nadu scheme was able to cover one-fourth of all births in 2008-2009, though there was some evidence of disadvantaged communities being excluded. This year’s budget aims to cover about half of all births.

According to a survey conducted in the third year of its implementation, Odisha was able to reach two-thirds of eligible women through its Mamata scheme and 70% of respondents had received all instalments. Delays and corruption were the main problems – one-fifth of the respondents complained of delays and on average, women reported getting Rs 4,722 out of Rs 5000.

The prime minister’s announcement on December 31, promising implementation of maternity entitlements – belated and vague as it is – is a welcome reminder of the task ahead. Details of the scheme will prove to be all important and determine whether or not it will translate into action. What is required is a universal, unconditional and inflation-indexed cash transfer. The principle for fixation of the cash transfer should be six months’ wages (as Tamil Nadu has attempted to do) as partial compensation for wage loss due to child-bearing. Viewed in this manner, the proposed level of Rs 6000 as per the 2013 Act and the prime minister’s announcement is too low. The government should consider implementing it for all births since 2013, when the Act came into being.

In the past two and a half years of this government, we have witnessed so many u-turns on social policy that it is hard to keep track. After criticising the UPA draft of the 2013 Act for not going far enough, the Shanta Kumar committee under the present government proposed reduction in its coverage in 2015. The prime minister, who had said in 2015 that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was “a living monument” to the Congress’s failures, changed his tune in 2016, this time saying it “is not a monument of our success…it is our responsibility to improve upon the gradual development of this scheme”.

It would be interesting to see if the needs of electoral politics force the Bharatiya Janata Party to recognise the importance of social security measures (such as MNREGA, maternity entitlements and others) and contribute to the emergence of a broader consensus on the need for a robust welfare state in India.

Can a colour encourage creativity and innovation?

The story behind the universally favoured colour - blue.

It was sought after by many artists. It was searched for in the skies and deep oceans. It was the colour blue. Found rarely as a pigment in nature, it was once more precious than gold. It was only after the discovery of a semi-precious rock, lapis lazuli, that Egyptians could extract this rare pigment.

For centuries, lapis lazuli was the only source of Ultramarine, a colour whose name translated to ‘beyond the sea’. The challenges associated with importing the stone made it exclusive to the Egyptian kingdom. The colour became commonly available only after the invention of a synthetic alternative known as ‘French Ultramarine’.

It’s no surprise that this rare colour that inspired artists in the 1900s, is still regarded as the as the colour of innovation in the 21st century. The story of discovery and creation of blue symbolizes attaining the unattainable.

It took scientists decades of trying to create the elusive ‘Blue Rose’. And the fascination with blue didn’t end there. When Sir John Herschel, the famous scientist and astronomer, tried to create copies of his notes; he discovered ‘Cyanotype’ or ‘Blueprints’, an invention that revolutionized architecture. The story of how a rugged, indigo fabric called ‘Denim’ became the choice for workmen in newly formed America and then a fashion sensation, is known to all. In each of these instances of breakthrough and innovation, the colour blue has had a significant influence.

In 2009, the University of British Columbia, conducted tests with 600 participants to see how cognitive performance varies when people see red or blue. While the red groups did better on recall and attention to detail, blue groups did better on tests requiring invention and imagination. The study proved that the colour blue boosts our ability to think creatively; reaffirming the notion that blue is the colour of innovation.

When we talk about innovation and exclusivity, the brand that takes us by surprise is NEXA. Since its inception, the brand has left no stone unturned to create excusive experiences for its audience. In the search for a colour that represents its spirit of innovation and communicates its determination to constantly evolve, NEXA created its own signature blue: NEXA Blue. The creation of a signature color was an endeavor to bring something exclusive and innovative to NEXA customers. This is the story of the creation, inspiration and passion behind NEXA: